Madeline De Michele is the winner of a $500 design prize for the second annual Friends of VCU Libraries (T-shirt) Design Contest. She is a Communication Arts and Psychology double major and will be graduating fall 2020.

The Friends invited students and recent alumni (2015 - 2019) to submit designs for a T-shirt. The design prompt was: What is your interpretation of the VCU Libraries?

The selection committee agreed that De Michele’s interpretation conveyed the atmosphere of VCU’s academic libraries, Cabell Library and Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, without being literal. The judging committee included representatives from the Friends of VCU Libraries Board, VCU Libraries faculty and VCU School of the Arts faculty.

Yuki Hibben, interim head & curator of books and art special collections and archives VCU Libraries, said of De Michele’s design “It's a fun and lively depiction of library activities. The contrasting and topsy-turvey figures within a circle are reminiscent of a Yin and Yang symbol. It's an imaginative design!”

Hawa Stwodah, assistant professor in the School of the Arts, said the winning design “showed both a whimsical as well as a sophisticated illustration style. The design used representative images to capture the key elements of VCU Libraries without being literal.”

This and other entries will be posted to VCU Libraries' Flickr platform. In addition to being printed on a T-shirt, the art may also be used for other VCU Libraries materials such as thank-you cards, tote bags and a Cabell Screen exhibit. The artist retains copyright.